Carlisle in All it's Glory

This is Liz. She is sad because she is wearing Aidan's glasses...? She is mainly sad because Aidan doesn't like football (soccer) and is coming with us all the way to Carlisle to see Carlisle United play anyways. And he's being a pain... but in a funny way...

We woke up at 9:00 in the morning (I know!) and tried to get everything ready for the day. I had my raincoat out because it was pouring in Edinburgh. I decided that it's not cute and I didn't want to bring it. So I grabbed my North Face, threw in my camera, some money and chapstick. And headed to the train, which we barely made. With sandwiches and tickets in tow, made it on the train for the hour and fifteen minute journey to Northern England to a town called Carlisle- the Border City. Liz grew up in a tiny town like mine called Wigton, about 20 minutes from Carlisle. She supports Carlisle United. They play in the first league (which is the third- after the Premiership and another one I can't remember).
Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself. Liz wanted to take us around the town. I was thrilled. Aidan is from London so this is like going to a very small town in Texas. He was not thrilled. We first went to the pet shop looking for a gold fish... or perhaps a hamster. Liz wants a pet badly and is pretty sure that she can hide it when the cleaners come every week and not get caught. We'll see. We didn't end up finding anything to suit her needs and our needs of lunch were getting stronger. Aidan vetoed the adorable coffee shop down the road in favor of KFC. That's right. I'm in England for the day and am forced to get KFC. It's worse in England, if that's possible. They love it.
After lunch Liz agreed to show us the sites.
First on our list was the Carlisle Catherdral. Liz's dad is the Vicar in Wigton and holds a seat here. The seats were made in the 14th century. How great would that be?!
I'm pretty sure I studied something like this in my Humanities class. Perhaps a vaulted ceiling? I wish I had paid more attention...
The stained glass window at the front of the Cathedral.
I was walking underneath this ceiling in awe when a woman flagged me down, or should I say hunted me down, and told me that she was pretty sure I had missed the mirror. I turned and followed her asking what the mirror was. She brought me to a mirror facing upwards to see the ceiling. I could have just as easily looked up. She told me to look more over it and I would see a face. I'm thinking, well obviously, I'll see my face, but when I looked, there is a small circle in the middle of the ceiling with a painting of the Virgin Mary- she is holding up the stars. I thought it was pretty cute. Aidan and Liz had moved on long before so I had to leave the mirror and the mirror woman and find them.
They were done with the Cathedral so we were off to the next site- the Millennium Bridge. Liz goes "here is Carlisle's poor attempt at the Millenium Bridge. The first person to try to use it was in a wheel chair and got stuck in the elevator. Should we go?"
The Bridge is about 20 yards long. And white. But it has a nice view of the Carlisle Castle.
It's maybe not the most exciting castle, but then again, I may be getting jaded.
I think I forgot to mention the best part of the whole day! It's been literally dumping rain the entire time. My pants had absorbed water up to the knee. You know when your pants (trousers) are so wet that when you walk the wet part hits you leg where your sock isn't and makes you that much colder? Yeah, that was happening...all day...
So after the Bridge we had pretty much seen the whole town. So we headed over to the Pub for a drink before the game. This was on the way. Pretty much like any town you might come across, but pretty nonetheless.
Also, may I take a minute and point out that the cars are parked facing different directions? This is totally legal and normal and typically people cut across traffic amidst the honking of oncoming cars to try to secure a parking spot across the street. It's great.
So we were off to the Carlisle match, all the while dealing with Aidan's poor attempt to convince us that if they didn't play well we would leave early. Liz and I were too excited. We got there 35 minutes early. So we sat down and waited.
And then stood and waited for them to score.
They didn't. The first half was done. We were soaking wet and cold. The other team had scored once. Aidan had even stopped whining he was so upset. The second half saw another score from the other team and none from Carlise. There had been quite a few headers and punts up and down the field. And no passes. They played horribly- both teams. Carlise finally scored a goal in the last few minutes of the game. But still lost 2-1. We had managed to stay the whole game. We couldn't feel our feet. Yay football!
They can't take a serious picture.
Seriously.


Liz's dad came and picked us up and drove us back to Wigton to get all the things the Liz had left at home. We got there and put everything we owned on the radiator. Her mom whipped us up some spaghetti and salad and hot cocoa. It was so sweet. Her family is so adorable and made me terribly homesick. Jeffrey (Liz's dad) drove us back to the station- warm, full, happy and almost dry. We pulled up with two minutes till our train left. We somehow managed to find the platform and get on the train in time. I almost slept through the hour and fifteen minutes back. We had an excruciatingly long and cold walk back from the station and fell into bed.

Next weekend will hopefully be the Benmore Botanic Gardens. We'll see how much homework I get done during the week...